MGT301A Ethics and Sustainability Report: 7-Eleven Case Study

This report examines the unethical practices of 7-Eleven, a prominent Australian company, focusing on its exploitation of overseas student employees through underpayment and failure to maintain proper payment records. The company is accused of cheating both its employees and the Australian government by avoiding taxes. The report details the company's actions, including cost-cutting measures that led to workforce reduction without notification, breaching stakeholder commitments, and falsifying payroll sheets. Key stakeholders include the affected employees and the Australian government. The report explores how 7-Eleven can prevent such unethical initiatives and discusses the company's failures to meet consumer expectations due to information fraud and money laundering. The Fair Work Ombudsman's accusations and potential legal consequences, including business closure, are highlighted. The report also references the agency through which the employees are recruited, and how the company has tried to put the blame on them. The report concludes with a call for 7-Eleven to address these issues and prevent future unethical behavior.

Running head: UNETHICAL PRACTICE
UNETHICAL PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1UNETHICAL PRACTICE
Scenario:
The ethical issue here detailed is the illegal behaviour of payment fraud of the reputed
Australia company 7 Eleven. This company employs the overseas students visiting Australia
under low payment slab and does not keep payment record. In addition to this, the company
not only cheating the employees by exploiting them but also cheating the government of
Australia by skipping taxes. The company has been accused by The Fair Work Ombudsman
Australia for this illegal operation for along six years. The payroll records are not kept in the
workplace in order to fraud the tax department continuously (Ferguson, 2015). A particular
group of managers have however aimed to cut its cost by reducing the number of employees
working in its different branches by not paying them properly. This is leading to reduction in
the workforce for which the company has not given any type of notification to the employees.
The employees also do not have any idea why they are being punished in such manner. This
is breaching of the commitment towards the stakeholders. It has continued to cheat these
employees long with the tax system of the company by falsifying the payroll sheets to cheat
the tax department of the country.
Despite the fact that the company has been operating in the country in the retail
industry for long, it has failed to meet the expectation of the consumers by the problems of
the information fraud, money laundering and many other unethical moves but this time it has
initiated to cut down cost by reducing the number of employees without even notifying them.
It is referred to as the unnecessary alarming situation for the human workforce who has
lunched legal case against the company’s decisions making process. The company has
referred to the agency through which the employees are recruited. They have asked the media
persons to ask and investigate the agencies as they are responsible to pay the employees.
According to the managers the company therefore is not responsible to handle these student-
employees and there might be some miscommunication. This statement given to the media

2UNETHICAL PRACTICE
and The Fair Work Ombudsman Australia is also false as the company itself is responsible to
pay its employees. The media has mentioned the fact that the employees and tax department
can walk in the path of legal punishment against this company that may lead it to shut down
the business in Australia.
The main stakeholders in this case are the employees who are feeling threatened by the fraud
payment process of the company. In addition to this, the government of the country and its
tax department are also the stakeholder of this unethical issue.
How can 7 Eleven can immediately prevent such unethical initiative to be taken?
Reference list:
Ferguson, A. (2015). 7-Eleven: Wage abuse claims puts scrutiny on Fair Work response.
Retrieved 17 August 2019, from http://www.afr.com/business/retail/fmcg/7eleven-wage-
abuse-claims-puts-scrutiny-on-fair-work-response-20150830-gjavxh